The present invention relates generally to telecommunications and multimedia junctions, and particularly to outlet boxes for facilitating telecommunications and multimedia-type junctions and connections within a work space or other place where space is at a premium.
Outlet boxes designed for the work place need to account for potentially tight space considerations. In particular, providing access to the connectors housed therein from a variety of angles is often advantageous, as seen for example in U.S. Pat. No. 5,947,765. This is especially true of outlet boxes intended to be wall-mounted or otherwise disposed within a visible and usable work space, as opposed to when outlet boxes are mounted in more discreet locations, such as when they are underfloor-mounted or when they reside above a false ceiling. The space limitations associated with a work space might, for example, yield situations where a particular cable only has sufficient length to reach one particular side of an outlet box and/or from one particular angle. Also, fiberoptic cabling generally must avoid sharp turns or bends, and often has a “minimum bend radius” associated with particular cable. Standard outlet boxes having traditional configurations sometimes fail to accommodate the demands of fiberoptic cabling by requiring sharp turns of the cabling in order to plug into particular connectors or by having sharp corners on the perimeter of the box.
Many different types of outlet boxes exist, but a significant shortcoming of many prior art designs is that they do not support a large number of “gravity-feed” connections, connections where a cable approaches the outlet box at an upward angle or direction such that gravity's effect on the cable is more minimal, especially with regard to adversely affecting the bend radius near the outlet box. Sometimes even connectors that provide “gravity-feed” connections, such as the ones shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,947,765, fail to provide sufficient clearance for the cables entering the “gravity-feed” connectors to avoid bend radius problems due to the potential proximity of other office equipment and the like.
Other outlet boxes fail to provide for easy access to the interior thereof, such as to access cable or switch particular connectors into and out of particular bays of the outlet box. This can limit the adaptability of the outlet box for particular telecommunications or multimedia applications. Still other outlet boxes fail to provide cable slack management features, such as bend radii, inside the boxes. Such failure may encourage deleterious cable kinking and tangling within the boxes. Some boxes may also have connectors oriented to make plugs difficult to insert into or remove from the connectors, especially when adjacent connectors have plugs inserted therein. Still other boxes may require a fiberoptic cable to be twisted to enable a plug to be inserted into its connectors. Twisting of fiberoptic cables, especially when coupled with other stresses, may have detrimental effects on the signals being passed through them. Thus, there is a need for an improved multimedia outlet box.